November 15, 2011

Reps. Clay & Cleaver Top List for Most Expensive Tax-funded Leases

A little-discussed perk for Congressmen is that – should they choose – they can lease vehicles with taxpayer dollars.

Recent reports found that 80 members of Congress are doing exactly that – and ten of those eighty leases total more than $1,000 per month.

Only two of Missouri’s nine Congressmen cash in on the program… and both are in the $1,000 + per month club.

Not surprisingly, these Congressmen are St. Louis Rep. Lacy Clay and Kansas City Rep. Emanuel Cleaver. Clay leases a $1,058 per month Ford hybrid (going green while wasting ours) and, not to be outdone, Cleaver tops the list with a $1,900 per month lease on a converted airport shuttle that runs on veggie oil (pimp that bus!) because if you’re going to take taxpayer money to lease a vehicle, why not get ridiculous about it?

Here’s where the absurdity of the situation comes into focus: the usual argument for taxpayer-funded vehicles is that Congressmen in rural districts spend a lot of time on the road driving from city to city. And yet both Clay and Cleaver live in the (only) two compact, urban, city-centric districts in the state.

It flies in the face of common sense.

The Republican Representatives from Missouri have large, rural districts and yet not one uses a taxpayer-leased car, truck, or pimped-out airport shuttle.

Russ Carnahan is the only Missouri Democrat who does not have a taxpayer-leased vehicle, although when you’re a pompous gas-bag full of hot air you don’t really need ground transportation, do you?

Cleaver and Clay should take a clue from their fellow Missouri Representatives – the Republicans – and use their own salaries on their cars, not ours.

- B.H.

On Election Eve, Impact of Special Interest Groups Remains Unknown

Some local activists align with pro-referendum Citizens for 113A; others support national organizations such as Americans for Prosperity.

Comments

Why does this not surprise me? Livin' large on the backs of the taxpayers, par for the course for the left. No surprise that the Repubs use their own vehicles, they still have a sense of right and wrong and common sense.